An aid worker diary from Darfur, Sudan: real stories, random observations and occasional rants on the lives of Darfur’s two million displaced people and the somewhat bewildered humanitarian agencies who are trying to help them.
Sleepless in Sudan is just another website on just another violent conflict in Africa – but uncensored, direct and without the sugar-coating that the tightly controlled and highly politicized environment demands from the official sources.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

It's 2006 and I am greeted back to the blog world with the news that I have been nominated for a 'Bloggie' (in the 'Best Africa or Middle East blog').

I am told that this is quite a prestigious affair and I must now go and tell the world to vote for me at 2006.bloggies.com - having just come back from visiting the site myself though, I'd absolutely forgive you if you end up getting sidetracked with checking out some of the truly hysterical and fabulous weblogs that have been nominated, and simply forgot to cast your vote. Happy reading.

Hello sleepless in sudanI have myself spent 4 months in South Darfur as a nurse for a medical NGO. Well, I am back since a few months, and a local journalist wanted to write an article about my experience there.My NGO forbids me to talk about rapes and janjaweed, and asked me not to talk much about malnutrition. They want me to talk about my daily experience, which was to take care of malnurished children, raped and beaten women and children shot by gun.In front of this censorship from an "humanitarian" organisation, I am basically appalled. Thank you to write for all darfurian people, who die and who have no rights whan nobody cares.I want to encourage you. Never give up!

Also, I just learned that Oxfam prohibits its representatives from calling what's gone on in Darfur what it is, a genocide, because if they do their aid workers could be kicked out. It's really too bad. Are you under any restriction like that, and if so, are you ignoring it? I'm glad you've been speaking out and I hope more aid workers in other parts of the world (we need a Sleepless in Northern Uganda blog) will do so.

Just some more clarification on censorship (including self-censorship) in Sudan - yes, all aid agencies who work in Darfur are extremely careful about what they say in public. This is not because they are turning a blind eye to the situation, but because their staff's safety and their ability to operate would be under serious threat if they spoke out more explicitly about the things they are seeing.

While the expat aid workers are indeed very likely to get kicked out for making public statements, this risk pales in comparison to the one that our Sudanese colleagues face - intimidation, harassment, abduction, brutalisation and in some cases murder. Both local and international staff are often at risk of retaliation even when media statements or appeals have come from an aid agency's headquarters in Europe or the US.

Everyone on the ground knows of situations where security incidents (abductions, rapes, and even killings) were specifically targetted at certain NGOs in response to something they said and did. In this sense, the threat of arrest or getting staff booted out of the country may be one thing - risking a colleague's life or safety is quite another.

Unfortunately, Darfur is still a conflict zone - and making strong public statements about any party to the conflict (be they government forces, rebels or militia) is extremely risky for organisations whose main job is providing assistance to the victims of the conflict.

While these agencies might try to affect some change behind the scenes or even choose to pass on information to journalists, human rights lobbyists or prosecutors, they would simply no longer be able to operate safely in the field if they took a hard line stance against the government, the rebels, or anyone else running around Darfur with a gun.

Instead, we try to find other solutions that go beyond just immediate assistance to victims. This blog is just one of them.

Welcome back! And congrats on the nomination. I'll admit, that's how I found you and now you're in my Favorites so I can check in every day. :)

I work with an actor with strong Sudanese ties; we've been struggling to find effective ways to provide assistance to the region. Last year we raised $1500 for Doctors Without Borders and their relief efforts in the Sudan. It's a start, but we want to do more. I'm hoping that your experiences and writing will help give us a sense of what else we can do.

Congratulations for your nomination.I will give you my vote, of course.Your direct experience of Darfur's conflict is a fresh piece to complete the IRIN sitrepsand the few Western media approaches to the place. Just two questions:1. About the African Union troops deployed in Darfur... Do you think that troops from countries of the Arabic part of Africa are currently the bigger part?Can it be a hurdle to stop the Janjaweed?

2.Do you consider the situation will change if current African Union troops pass the commitment to U.N. troops?

I'm publishing a very specific blog about African conflicts, you can check it at www.afriblog.org

Welcome back! Of course I'll vote for you for sure.. I am also interested to know what you think about the UN Peacekeepers potentially coming into the sitcho.. do you think they will be effective? Do you think it would be super dangerous?

I read about you in the NYRB. Now I am hooked, on blogging as a way of communicating. Your insights and information are so valuable, as a small but essential step that hopefully is on the path to the world DOING something about the horrible conditions you describe. Way to go, Sleepless. We should all be sleepless when such horrors are allowed to persist.

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